MASI Legislative Update – Dangerous Bills Die

MASI Joins With MS Association Health-Underwriters this Wednesday for MAHU Legislative Day! Scroll down for details…

Deadlines Shorten Bill List – Dangerous Bills Die

Legislative Deadlines have shortened the bill list – and with a major deadline approaching this Thursday, February 8, the deadline for floor passage of general bills originating in each chamber, the list is about to shorten even more.

Among the dead bills are all of the dangerous Workers’ Comp bills MASI had been working to defeat. Also dead are quite a number of health insurance bills that would have imposed unfunded and expensive coverage mandates on providers of group health insurance. We thank and applaud Senator Videt Carmichael, Senate Insurance Chairman, and Representative Gary Chism, House Insurance Chairman, for their leadership in this effort. At left, the House Insurance Committee, chaired by Rep. Chism, considers legislation.

After Thursday, the process starts all over again for the bills that do pass and then get referred to committees in the other chamber- House bills will go to the Senate and vice versa.

These deadlines do not apply, however, to finance bills such as our Wellness Tax Credit. These bills have until February 21 to be passed by each chamber and then referred to the next.

MASI Joins With MS Association Health-Underwriters this Wednesday for MAHU Legislative Day

All are invited this Wednesday to the MS Trucking Association for a lunch meeting at 11:30 … We will then head to the Capitol to visit with Lt. Governor Tate Reeves and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn. If you’d like to join us, just drop us an e-mail!

Now that the House Judiciary B Committee has passed HB1080, the Mississippi Urine Trouble Act, we now await floor action in the House. We are hopeful the bill will be passed by Thursday’s deadline.

This bill will make the sale of synthetic human urine illegal in Mississippi for the purposes of faking a drug test.

This issue was brought to our attention by MASI member companies who are struggling to maintain a drug-free workplace due to the increased use of SHU – many employees across our state have been using this product to falsify the results of their urine tests.

After a lively and lengthy discussion, the House Jud B committee amended the bill by doubling the penalties and then overwhelmingly passed it. Committee Chairman Andy Gipson authored the bill, and Committee Co-Chairman Willie Bailey will champion the bill during debate. After hopeful passage, the bill will then be referred to the Senate.

MASI’s Workplace Wellness Tax Credit has been introduced in the House. HB1542, authored by House Ways and Means Chairman Jeff Smith, is now pending – and we are hopeful that it will soon pass committee and be sent to the floor for a vote by the full House. We are still waiting on a companion bill to be introduced in the Senate.

The cornerstone of MASI’s 2018 Legislative Agenda, the Workplace Wellness Tax Credit will allow $1 million in tax credits for employers who provide wellness programs for their employees. This is a Win-Win proposal for workers’ comp plans and health plans both! As a revenue bill, we will be facing a February 21 deadline – and we will be sure to keep you posted on its progress.

The House overwhelmingly voted to pass HB789, a “Return to Special Fund Bill” to restore fiscal authority to the MS Workers’ Compensation Commission, reversing the damaging bill passed in 2016 which swept the Administrative Expense Fund into the State General Fund, resulting in increased assessments on many of our members. We applaud Appropriations Chairman John Read, pictured at left with MASI Executive Director Dan Gibson, and Rep. Chris Brown, author of the bill, for their leadership and support.

If you’re like me, you really get tired of hearing about how fat we are. Do we really need anyone to tell us?? Sure we have some of the best cooks in the world, but it’s just awful how much we get picked on. Travel to any other place, especially a foreign country, and it’s easy to see why we are fat – talk about awesome Southern cuisine!